*Author’s POV* 

The group of ten got to know each other more over the next two days. Not all of the bonding was good however. There were fights between the girls (mostly Vanessa and Nicole and occasionally Key). EVERYONE grew to hate Vanessa’s annoying… everything! Finally it was time to find out the pairings. Everyone was scared because they liked who they had already; everyone, that is, except Onew, who was more ready than ever to hopefully get rid of Vanessa.

*Onew’s POV*

Come on; just say the pairings already! I hate when people stall!

I held my breath as our manager began reading off the list, whose name went with who.

“We’ll start from the bottom up.”

Wow; not cool.

“Taemin, you will be with Carolyn. Minho you will be with Nicole. Key you’re paired up with Brianna. Jonghyun you’re with Vanessa. And Onew… you’re with Rebecca.”

Nobody was looking at their match. Instead Taemin was looking at Brianna and Brianna was looking at Taemin. Key and Carolyn exchanged sorry glances. Jonghyun stared at our manager blankly while Vanessa jumped up and down, shouting like a crazy woman. I could see Nicole watching Jonghyun out of the corner of her eye, but otherwise she showed no emotion. I finally looked over at Rebecca, the girl I’d be “dating” for the next three months. She and Minho were staring longingly into each other’s eyes. I knew their bond was close since the first day when Minho had helped bandage her sprained ankle. Now I’d pretty much be taking her from Minho. I couldn’t help feeling bad.

“What are all of you looking at?” asked our manager.

“We kind of already paired ourselves up,” Taemin spoke up shyly.

“Well that’s cute, but here’s your new pairings. You’ll each be going-,”

“I’M NOT GOING TO BE STUCK WITH HER FOR THREE MONTHS!!!!!”

We all turned to face Jonghyun. His face was boiling red with anger.

“Oh come on Oppa, it won’t be so bad!” she exclaimed as she buried him in a giant hug.

He scraped her body off of him and marched up to our manager.

“Get me a different girl; now!”

“Jonghyun, if you don’t calm down and do as you’re told, I’ll send you back to Korea; all alone for the next three months…”

“NO! I-I’ll behave,” he answered quickly.

Jonghyun and his loneliness issues. I thought, shaking my head.

“Now as I was saying: Today you’ll be going on your first dates with your new matches. I trust that each of you boys did as you were told and picked out your locations yesterday?”

“Ne,” we all nodded.

“Good. There are five limos waiting out back that will each couple to their destination. Have fun, and please… get along.”

We filed out the door to the back parking lot where five sleek, black limos were waiting for us.

*Taemin’s POV*

I opened the door for Carolyn and she stepped into the limo, blushing while doing so. I didn’t mind being with Carolyn, but I had really been wanting to be paired with Brianna. I found Brianna with my eyes and sent her one last longing look before climbing into the limo.

We road along in silence for a little while; awkward tension filling the air of the vehicle.

Finally I spoke, “So um, were you and Key close?”

She glanced over at me, a blank expression on her face, “Not really.” It was a simple answer, meaningless in every way possible.

Of course they were close! They spent all of the past three days together; just the two of them!

“What about you and Brianna?”

“Nahh,” I answered.

We rode the rest of the way in silence. Finally we made it to the place I had chosen for our first date.